Littlestown senior Kelsey Harteis scores twice in the Divisions 2/3 game to lead the Dark Team to its 3-0 win.

By DANIEL PAULLING The Evening Sun

Posted:
11/14/2012 10:58:07 PM EST

Littlestown s Trina Chavez (dark jersey) spars with Fairfield s Miranda Peiffer for control of the ball during Wednesday s Divisions II-III all-star field hockey game at York Suburban High School. (THE EVENING SUN CLARE BECKER )

A few minutes before Wednesday night's YAIAA Field Hockey Senior All-Star Games, the Divisions II/III Dark Team tried to install a few plays to run off penalty corners. The task was challenging considering it hadn't played together before.

Fortunately for the Dark Team, the work on corners led to two goals in a 3-0 win against the Divisions II/III White team at York Suburban High School.

"You don't have an opportunity to get them together to practice," Dark Team coach Neil Bixler of Bermudian Springs said. "In a game like this, to score on corners is unusual because you don't have a lot of things worked out. They ran them well."

Littlestown's Kelsey Harteis, undecided about playing field hockey in college but hoping to attend Lebanon Valley College, scored the first two goals. Corners led to two of the Dark Team's goals.

The Dark Team was comprised of Bermudian Springs, Biglerville, Delone Catholic, Eastern York and Littlestown, and the White Team featured Fairfield, Hanover, Kennard-Dale, West York and York Suburban.

Trying to adapt to new teammates was also a challenge in the Division I game, which the Dark Team won 3-2. Its coach, Lauren Ramspacher of Northeastern, remembers watching many of the players during the season and used that to determine how to best utilize her players.

"Looking at the girls over the season, you can see where their strengths and weaknesses lie," she said. "I think they did great for not ever playing with each other on a team. It's one of those things you have to take it and go."

The Division I Dark Team was comprised of Central York, Northeastern, Red Lion and Spring Grove, and the Division I White Team had Dallastown, Dover, New Oxford and South Western.

Dark Team forward Lauren Moyer (Central York) scored the first goal, but the White Team took a 2-1 lead behind goals from Julia Snyder (Dallastown) and Paige Barefoot (Dallastown).

Moyer scored the final goal, which came in the waning minutes.

"It's one of those things that it's tied, it's really anybody's game," Ramspacher said. "I think it was evenly matched between the schools in the division. Hitting it off the backboard, seeing that was great."

Weather concerns delayed the game a week, which pushed players one week further from their midseason form.

"I could see, at least a couple of my players, they hadn't been doing a whole lot for the last couple of weeks," Bixler said. "That's typical. They're going to take a break."